The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1887-06-03

In the civil war, and my country wsII nonor
my dust AZ II honors those who preceded mo
In patriotic sacrifice, and once year at any
rate, on Decoration Day, ! shall be res
directed into the remembrance Of those
for whom died. Here I 60 for God
and my country" II foreign foe should ever
come all sectional anlncsities would be OBJ
liberated. Here 60 our regiments into the
battle, side by side, Fifteenth New York
volunteers, Tenth Alabama cavalry, Four
teenth Pennsylvania riAcme:,, Tenth Massa-
chusetts artillery, Seventh South Carolina
sharpshooters. ! have 10 faith in the cry:
mo north, no south, no east, no west" Let
all four sections keep their peculiarities and
their preferences, each doing its own work
and not interfering with each other, each Of
the four carrying its part In the great har-
mony-the bass, the alto, the tenor. the
soprano in the grand march Of the Union.
congratulate you, the officers and SOL
diers Of this National encampnlent, that II q
foreign attack should at any time be made
you would he ready, and there would be mil
lions Of the drilled men Of north and south,
like the men of my first text, which could
keep rank, and like the men Of my second
text, that would not miss hair breadth.
At this National drill, when thirty-one
states of the Union are represented, and be
tween the decorations Of the graves OF the
southern dead, which took place few days
ago, and the decorations Of the northern dead,
which shall take place tomorrow, would
stir the Christian patriotism and gratitude
not only of this soldiery here present. but Of
all the people, by putting before them the
difference between these times, when the SOL
oR SsNv aud tka
times when they met in contest. Contrast
1869 with the feeling Of sectional unity
in 1887. At the first date the south
had banished the national air.. 1.-THE
Star Spangled Banner" and the north had
banished the popular air Of "Way Down
South In Dixie" The northern people were
"mudsills" and the southern people we're
"white trash" The more southern people
were killed in battle the better the north
liked 1t. The more northern people were
killed in battle the better the south liked It.
For four years the head Of Abraham Lincoln
or jefferson Davis would have been worth
81 100000, II delivered on either side the line.
No need now, standing in our pulpits and
platforms, Of saying that the north and south
did not hate each other. To estimate how
very dearly they loved each other, count up
the bombshells that were hurled and the car
bines that were loaded and the cavalry
horses, that were mounted, north and south
facing each other. all armed, in the attempt
to kill. The two sections not only marsha!ed
all their earthly hostilities, but tried to reacl,
up and get hold Of the sword of heaven,
and the prayer Of the northern and.south-
ern pulpits gave more information to the
heavens about the best mode of settling this
trouble than was ever used. For four years
both sides tried to get hold of the Lords
thunderbolts, but could not quite reach them.
At the breaking out of the war we had not
for months heard Of my dear uncle, Samuel
]. Talmage, president Of the Oglethorpe uni
versity, in Georgia. He was about the
grandest man ever knew, and as good as
good could be. The first we heard of him
was his opening prayer in the Confederate
congress in Richmond, which was reported in
the New York papers, which prayer, if
answered, would, to say the least, have left
all his northern relatives in very uncomfort-
able circumstances. The ministry at the
north prayed one way and the ministry at
the south prayed the other way. No use in
hiding the fact that the north and the south
cursed each other with whitening and all
consuming curse.
Beside that ant1pathy Of war time place
the complete accord of this time. Not long
ago meeting in New York was held to raise
money to build home at Richmond for
crippled Confederate soldiers, and was pre-
sided over by man who lost an arm and a
leg in fighting on the northern side, and the
leg which was not lost SO hurt that it does not
amount to much. The Cotton exhibition held
not long ago ut Atlanta was attended by tens
Of thousands of northern people and by Gen.
Sherman, who was greeted with kindness, as
though they had never seen him before At
the New Orleans exhibition, held two years
ago, every northern state was represented. A
thousand fold kindlier feeling after the war
than before the war; No more use for gun
powder in this country, except for rifle prac-
tice or Fourth of July pyrotechnics or shot
at roebuck in the Adirondacks. Brigadier
generals in the Southern Confederacy
making their fortunes as lawyers in the
northern cities. Rivers of Georgia, Ala
bama and North Carolina turning
mills of New England capitalists The old
lions Of war, Fort Sumter and Moultrie and
Lafayette and Pickens and Hamilton, sound
asleep on their iron paws, and instead of rails
ing money to keep enemies out of our New
York harbor, raising money for the Bartholdi
statute on Bedloe's island, figure of liberty
with uplifted torch to light the way to all
who want to come in. Instead of war antip-
athies, when you could not cross the line be-
tween the contestants without fighting your
way with keen steel or getting through by
passes carefully scrutinized at every step by
bayonets, you need only railroad ticket
from New York to Charleston or New Orleans
to go clear through, and there is no use for
any weapon sharper or stronger than steel
pen. Since the years OF time began their
roll, has there ever been in about two decades
such an overmastering antithesis as between
the war time Of complete bitterness, and this
time Of complete sympathy?
Contrast also the domestic life of those
times with the domestic life of these times
Many of you were either leaving home or far
away from it, communicating by uncertain
letter. What a morning that was when you
left home! Father and mother crying, sisters
crying, you smiling outside but crying inside.
Everybody nervous and excited. Boys of the
blue and gray! whether you started from the
banks of the Hudson, or the Savannah, or the
Androscoggin, don't you remember the scenes
at the front door, at the rail car window, on
the steamboat landingg The huzza could not
drown out the suppressed sadness. Don't you
those charges to write home often,